In the late 1970s, a killer moved through California and beyond with chilling confidence, capturing the public’s attention through both his crimes and an unlikely appearance on a popular TV show. Born Rodrigo Jacques Alcala in 1943, the man who would later become infamous as Rodney Alcala showed early glimpses of intelligence and charm. Yet behind that façade lay the mind of a perpetrator whose known victims spanned multiple states—and whose true number of murders may never be fully known.
A Promising Start, a Dark Turn
Alcala’s early life gave little hint of the terror he would unleash. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he moved to Mexico with his family in 1951. By age 11, he and his siblings were living in suburban Los Angeles with their mother. He attended private schools, ran cross-country, and worked on the yearbook committee. At 17, Alcala enlisted in the U.S. Army; it was during this period that he was noted for manipulative behavior and disciplined multiple times for assaults.
Following a nervous breakdown, Alcala was discharged. He then attended UCLA’s School of the Arts and Architecture, later studying film under Roman Polanski at New York University. Beneath the veneer of education and city life, however, dark impulses stirred—ones that soon escalated from violence to murder.
The Attack on Tali Shapiro
In 1968, an eight-year-old named Tali Shapiro was abducted and attacked in Alcala’s Hollywood apartment. A concerned motorist had noticed Alcala luring the girl into his car and alerted the police. By the time officers arrived, they found Shapiro clinging to life, brutally assaulted and beaten. Alcala had fled.
This assault led to an arrest warrant, but Alcala managed to avoid capture by leaving California. He reemerged on the East Coast, using the alias “John Berger.” This ruse granted him enough anonymity to continue a pattern of crimes in multiple states.
The Murder of Cornelia Crilley
While living as “John Berger” in New York, Alcala took a job at an arts camp in New Hampshire. But in June 1971, 23-year-old flight attendant Cornelia Crilley was found strangled in her Manhattan apartment. The case went cold for decades, but evidence would eventually link Alcala to the crime. Investigators believe she likely encountered him as she was moving into her new apartment and accepted his offer of help, unaware of the danger. DNA would later confirm his guilt, but only after years had passed.
Capture and Release—Then More Crimes
Alcala’s time at the New Hampshire arts camp ended after two students recognized his photo on an FBI “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” poster in 1971. Arrested and extradited to California, he faced charges stemming from the attack on Tali Shapiro. However, with Shapiro’s family unwilling to let her testify, prosecutors were forced to pursue lesser charges of child molestation. Alcala served a brief prison sentence. Paroled in 1974, he was quickly arrested again for assaulting a 13-year-old girl—only to be paroled once more in 1977.
Allowed by his parole officer to travel to New York City despite his record, Alcala struck again. When 23-year-old Ellen Jane Hover disappeared that summer, her datebook showed a scheduled meeting with “John Berger.” Her body was found months later, buried on a property overlooking the Hudson River. Although he was questioned at the time, investigators had insufficient proof to arrest him for her death. Thus, Alcala continued a pattern of moving among Los Angeles, New York, and other parts of the country, luring unsuspecting victims.
The ‘Dating Game’ Appearance
Despite an ongoing murder spree, Alcala showcased his charisma on national television in 1978, appearing as a contestant on The Dating Game. Introduced as a “successful photographer,” he actually won a date with the bachelorette—only for her to decline when she found him unsettling. This televised moment would later earn him the grim moniker, “The Dating Game Killer.”
Mounting Evidence and the Samsoe Case
In 1979, 12-year-old Robin Christine Samsoe vanished while biking to a ballet class in Huntington Beach, California. Her body was discovered nearly two weeks later in the foothills outside Los Angeles. Witnesses recalled a stranger approaching Samsoe and a friend at the beach that day to take their pictures. A composite sketch connected that stranger to Alcala.
Arrested in July 1979, Alcala stood trial for Samsoe’s murder and was eventually found guilty. Yet due to procedural issues and appeals, he was tried for her death multiple times. Each retrial brought the same outcome: a conviction for first-degree murder.
Linking Multiple Murders
Over the following years, new forensic techniques began linking Alcala to other unsolved murders in California. Investigators discovered that DNA from crime scenes matched samples taken from Alcala in prison. Four victims—Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb, and Jill Parenteau—were found to have been sexually assaulted and then killed under circumstances that bore Alcala’s signature. All had been “posed” after death, consistent with his known pattern. Evidence from a storage locker in Seattle, which contained jewelry belonging to victims, further solidified the case against him.
When he finally went on trial again in 2010, Alcala took the extraordinary step of acting as his own attorney. Despite his attempts to sow confusion—playing a portion of his Dating Game appearance and even questioning himself on the stand—jurors found him guilty on all five counts of murder. He once more received a death sentence.
A Killer’s Methods and Mindset
Psychiatrists and forensic experts proposed multiple diagnoses for Alcala, including narcissistic personality disorder and sexual sadism. Prosecutors highlighted his tendency to “toy” with his victims by strangling them until they lost consciousness, then reviving them only to continue the torture. This manipulative streak, combined with high intelligence and a self-absorbed disregard for others, may help explain how he evaded law enforcement for so long.
Alcala also photographed hundreds of individuals—many of them young women, and some underage boys—often persuading them to pose naked. Authorities released a batch of these images in 2010, seeking the public’s help to identify potential unknown victims. Some images have led to possible matches with missing persons; others remain mysterious to this day.
Later Legal Actions and Death
In 2011, Alcala was indicted in New York for the murders of Cornelia Crilley and Ellen Hover. He ultimately pled guilty in both cases and received an additional prison term of 25 years to life. In 2016, he was also charged in Wyoming with the murder of Christine Thornton, who had been photographed by him in 1977. Because of his failing health, however, he never stood trial for that charge.
On July 24, 2021, Rodney Alcala died of natural causes at age 77 while on death row in California. His official victim count stands at eight, but investigators suspect that the real total could be well over one hundred.
Unanswered Questions
Despite decades of investigation, many questions remain about Alcala’s life and crimes. Where did he travel between known murders? How many more victims did he claim, and who are the unidentified individuals in his extensive photo collection? Such gaps linger, reminding us that even in a world of evolving forensic science, serial killers may still hold secrets that go with them to the grave.
Yet the details we do have present a chilling picture of a man who combined charm, cunning, and cruelty—enough to earn him the title “The Dating Game Killer” and a lethal reputation that endures long after his death.
